With complete bikes and components still hard to come by, London-based bike custom brand Stayer Cycles have found a tonic for the cycling industry’s current milieu.
By teaming up with fellow independent Ingrid, a small Italian parts manufacturer, it can now offer complete build options of its popular gravel and adventure steel framesets, the Groadinger Ultra Grav (UG), OG and OG+, with delivery as early as January or February 2022.
Staying small has its benefits and building both frames and wheels in-house means Stayer is less reliant on the global supply chain than other larger brands, where actually finding a bike to buy can be a struggle. The addition of Ingrid cranksets and rear derailleurs helped seal the deal.
(Image credit: Stayer Cycles)
So what does a Stayer x Ingrid build look like?
As you’d hope from a brand embedded in the custom bike world, there are plenty of options. Among the choices to be made: two different framesets, two different sets of forks, 11 or 12-speed groupset, mechanical or hydraulic disc brakes and 650b or 700c wheels.
At the heart of the build is the Stayer frame. You can opt for either the Groadinger UG or OG/OG+, both of which feature its signature wishbone seat stay.
The UG is its gravel/adventure offering, and while the ‘swiss army knife’ moniker is becoming a little overplayed in the all-road sector it’s pretty apt here. Made from a blend of Columbus ZONA and LIFE and T45 tubing, the UG allows for gravel bike tyre widths of up to 650b x 2.1” or 700 x 40c. You can then add Ritchey’s WCS ADV carbon fork if you’re planning on heading off into the wilds on a bikepacking trip or two or go for Whisky’s RD+ fork if you’re more likely to be mixing it up between road and trail.
(Image credit: Stayer Cycles)
The OG (650b) and OG+ (29”) is a drop bar trail frame made using Columbus and T45 tubing. It offers clearance for up to a 2.3” tyre and has dropper post routing. Fork options are divided between Enve’s carbon adventure or Stayer’s Stiff As Steel offerings. The result is a bike that Stayer says “rolls like a tractor and handles like a gazelle”.
As for the gruppo options, you can choose from an 1x11-speed 11-46t set-up with mechanical disc brakes or a 1x12-speed 10-48t or 11-44t set-up with hydraulic brakes. If you go the cable-actuated route you’ll be getting flat mount Klampers from fellow indie brand Paul Comp, paired with SRAM Rival 1 shifters. The hydro option puts your braking solely in the hands of SRAM courtesy of its Force 1 shifters and calipers.
(Image credit: Stayer Cycles)
All variations are built around Ingrid’s CRS-POP gravel crankset and its RDI rear mech. The crank arms are 2024 aluminium and feature an eye-catching dot pattern, inspired by Roy Lichtenstein’s iconic paintings, hence the POP name tag. The arms are paired with a spindle made from 7075 alloy, as is the chainring, which is available in 38, 40 or 42t options. Depending on crank arm length and chainring size the complete crankset will weigh approximately 620 grams.
The RDI derailleur is a blend of CNC and 3D printed technology and is also made from 7075 aluminium, weighing in at 270 grams.
(Image credit: Stayer Cycles)
Stayer’s Gravalloy Hope wheelset comes standard with any of the build options. As the name implies it's a gravel wheelset built around its in-house alloy rims and Hope RS4 hubs. The rims are tubeless ready and are suitably modern in their dimensions, with a 25mm internal width designed to get the most out of a high-volume gravel tyre. In the case of these builds that’s something suitably knobbly from Teravail. The Gravalloy wheels are hand-built at Stayer HQ and tip the scales at a very competitive 1550g and 1650g for 650b and 700c sizes respectively.
The finishing kit comes courtesy of Ritchey although in keeping with the customisation theme Stayer offers upgrade options, too. This allows you to choose a stem and seatpost from Hope, Paul Comp or Thomson as well as swapping the alloy hoops for Stayer’s carbon gravel wheels, saving around 100 grams or so.
The Stayer 11-speed mechanical full build starts from £4550 while the 12-speed hydraulic option starts at £4900.
We’ve recently received delivery of a Stayer Groadinger UD with 650b wheels and will be posting our review here soon.
For more details on the complete builds using Ingrid components visit stayercycles.com
Thank you for reading 20 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access
Luke Friend has worked as a writer, editor and copywriter for twenty five years. Across books, magazines and websites, he's covered a broad range of topics for a range of clients including Major League Baseball, the National Trust and the NHS. He has an MA in Professional Writing from Falmouth University and is a qualified bicycle mechanic. He has been a cycling enthusiast from an early age, partly due to watching the Tour de France on TV. He's a keen follower of bike racing to this day as well as a regular road and gravel rider.
What pressure are you running? Three different pressure monitoring systems, put to the test
'Why are other bikes so expensive?' - Van Rysel says it's not 'cheating the customer' as WorldTour bike undercuts competition
